Mt. Juliet residents produce, star in film

A movie about a girls cross-country team has brought together people from the Middle Tennessee area, including the producer and two Mt. Juliet High School runners.

The film, “Remember the Goal,” hits theaters Friday, and chronicles a first-year coach that just graduated college who attempts to lead a cross-country team at a girls Christian school to a state championship.

The film is the first about a girls cross-country team to hit the big screen. The movie was filmed in the Nashville area, and all the cast and crew is from the area.

Dave Christiano, of Mt. Juliet, produced the film. Also, two Mt. Juliet girls cross-country runners – Hailey Parker and Julie Karsten – are featured runners in the film.

“I chose girls cross-country for a couple of reasons. First, almost all high school sports movies are about boys, so I wanted to bring more awareness to girls athletics,” said Christiano, who coached cross-country in North Carolina in 2009.

“I had four freshmen girls in my top seven, and these girls made the experience of coaching a real blessing for me. They were great kids with good attitudes and so much fun to work with. It was that experience which helped influence me to do a story about girls cross-country. In fact, I named my characters after those freshman girls as a tribute to them.”

Christiano said children, teenagers and adults could take life lessons from the film.

“For teens, I dealt with issues such as helping a friend dealing with an addiction, overcoming a low self image, living in a broken family, living with a hard-to-please parent and obeying your parents in a dating situation,” he said.

“For parents, there are two very important principles presented that should help and then one message specifically for coaches, that to me, could change the way a coach approaches their team, especially in sports like basketball and football.”

Christiano said religion also plays an important role in the film.

“God exists, the Bible is the word of God, and this is the foundation of every movie I have ever done and will continue to do. The movie presents some principles that I believe will simply help people. It’s also a very safe movie for the entire family and deals with many issues that are relevant,” he said.

The movie will show in 78 cities in 10 southern states, including Regal Hollywood 27 in Nashville, Regal Indian Lake in Hendersonville, Carmike Thoroughbred in Franklin and Carmike Wynnsong in Murfreesboro.

The official trailer is available at “Remember The Goal” at fiveandtwopictures.com. More information is also available on Facebook at Remember the Goal.